1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly, to a fabrication method of a liquid crystal panel. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for maximizing the use of mother substrates in fabricating unit liquid crystal display panels.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As the times are rapidly changed into an information-oriented society, the field of display devices for processing and displaying mass information has been developed.
Cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) had been developed as a main stream of the display device in the past. However, recently, flat panel displays have drawn more attention because there are demands in characteristics, such as compact size, light-weight, and low power consumption in the display devices.
In order to meet such needs, a thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD, simply referred to as a liquid crystal display hereinafter) having excellent color reproducibility and thinness has been developed.
The liquid crystal display is being more widely used as a substitute means which can overcome shortcomings of the CRT, owing to its large contrast ratio, its adaptability in displaying gray scales or moving pictures, and its low power consumption.
FIG. 1 is a schematic plane view showing a liquid crystal panel of a related art liquid crystal display.
Referring to FIG. 1, a liquid crystal panel 11 of the related art liquid crystal display includes an upper substrate 5 with a transparent common electrode 18 formed on a color filter 7 including a black matrix 6 and sub-color filters 8, a lower substrate 22 provided with pixel regions P which are defined by pixel electrodes 17, thin film transistors as switching devices T, data lines 15, gate lines 13, and liquid crystal 14 filled between the upper substrate 5 and the lower substrate 22.
In fabricating the liquid crystal panel 11, alignment layers are formed on the upper and lower substrates. A spacer is formed on each of the upper and lower substrates by a sealant. And then, the upper and lower substrates are aligned and bonded to each other.
Subsequently, the bonded upper and lower substrates are cut to obtain a plurality of unit cells by a scribing/breaking process, the liquid crystal is injected between the upper and lower substrates, which is then sealed with a liquid crystal inlet. A polarizer is attached to one of the upper and lower substrates, and taps of a driver circuit are bonded to the upper and lower substrates.
In other words, after a plurality of upper and lower substrates, as described above, are formed on a pair of the mother glass substrates having a large area, the substrates are attached to each other by means of the sealant, and are then cut to form a plurality of liquid crystal panels.
When the liquid crystal panels formed on the large area of the mother glass substrates are cut as described above, dummy glass substrates, which are remaining portions of the mother glass substrates that are not formed on the upper and lower substrates, are formed between the liquid crystal panels. The dummy glass substrates are portions to be removed when the plurality of liquid crystal panel are cut.
Therefore, the liquid crystal panels and the dummy glass substrates must be separated from each other when the liquid crystal panels are cut.
At this time, the separation of the liquid crystal panels and the dummy glass substrates is performed through the scribing process and the breaking process.
Typically, the sealant serves to form a gap for injecting the liquid crystal and to attach the upper substrate and the lower substrate to each other.
However, a pattern of the sealant is also formed between the dummy glass substrates, which pattern serves to attach the large area of glass substrates to each other and entirely, the glass substrates being formed on the upper and lower substrates. This is for properly separating the liquid crystal panels and the dummy glass substrates when the liquid crystal panels are cut.
Recently, the liquid crystal panels having an asymmetrical size are being formed on a pair of glass substrates having large areas. In cutting such liquid crystal panels, however, small dummy glass substrates other than the aforementioned dummy glass substrates are produced. However, the small dummy glass substrates are not completely separated from the liquid crystal panels, thereby deteriorating the productivity of the liquid crystal panels.